The treatment of chronic and non-chronic pain is of great importance in medicine. There is a worldwide need for highly effective therapies for the targeted treatment of chronic and non-chronic pain in a manner that is fair to the patient, which is to be understood to mean the successful and satisfactory treatment of pain for the patient.
Conventional opioids such as morphine are highly effective in the therapy of severe to very severe pain. However, their use is limited by the known side-effects, such as, for example, respiratory depression, vomiting, sedation, constipation and the development of tolerance. In addition, they are less effective in neuropathic or incidental pain, from which tumor patients in particular suffer.
Opioids analgesic action operates by binding to receptors in the cell membrane which belong to the family of the so-called G-protein-coupled receptors. In addition to these, there are further receptors and also ion channels which are substantially involved in the system of pain formation and pain transmission, for example the so-called batrachotoxin (BTX) binding site (=binding site 2) of the sodium channel.